Doubles Match
by breeeliss
Summary: Aang was excited that Toph had finally gone through the trouble of planning a date. Too bad that Toph's idea of a date was to enter her and her boyfriend into an Earth Rumble bracket tournament. Aang x Toph. Pro-bending Circuit submission.


**Title: **Doubles Match

**Words: **2626

**Rating: **K+

**Summary: **Aang was excited that Toph had finally gone through the trouble of planning a date. Too bad that Toph's idea of a date was to enter her and her boyfriend into an Earth Rumble bracket tournament. Aang x Toph. Pro-bending Circuit submission

**a/n: **Round 3 submission for the Pro-Bending Circuit tournament. Haven't written any humor for this contest yet surprisingly enough (what's up with that?) So because the theme for this Round was OTP's, have some cute Taang to brighten up your day.

**Task: **Write about your OTP competing in a contest

**Prompts:**

(dialogue) "You're so lucky!"

(song) Mad by Ne-Yo ("Nobody's talking, 'cause talking just turns into screaming,/ and now as I'm yelling over her, she's yelling over me,/ all that means is neither of us are listening,/ and what's even worse, that we don't even remember why we're fighting.")

(quote) "Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you." –Walt Whitman

**Bonus: **Include the element Earth into the story; write the story in the season of Summer.

**OOO**

_Doubles Match_

**OOO**

As much as people seemed to find this fact surprising, Aang and Toph didn't get into too many fights. Even Aang and Toph found this surprising since it was blatantly obvious how different the two of them were. But their conflicting personalities didn't butt heads so much as they comfortably melded into a symbiotic existence. It helped that as they both grew older Toph became less boisterous and Aang became less timid. At the end of the day, Toph made Aang laugh, and Aang made Toph feel cherished, and those simple reasons had some lasting substance that kept them together for longer than anyone would have ever thought possible.

That being said, when they _did_ fight, it was always explosive.

Toph seriously tested his patience and actually made him _yell_, and Aang wasn't daunted by his girlfriend's threats or harsh words, which made her frustrated that she wasn't immediately getting her way.

Katara became the person that Aang went and complained to when these fights happened, and she always asked him the same question. "Why don't the two of you just talk things out for once instead of picking fights about things you disagree with?"

"Nobody's talking, Katara," Aang bemoaned. "Because the talking just turns into screaming, and now as I'm yelling over her, she's yelling over me, and all that means is that neither of us are listening, and what's even worse is that we don't even remember why we're fighting."

He covered his face with his hands and slid down his chair. "All I said was that I was annoyed that I always took the initiative in our relationship. _I_ plan the dates. _I_ buy the presents. _I_ say the "I love you's" and she…well she doesn't. And at first I thought it was fine because she's more reserved with emotions, but lately it's been kind of…I dunno. Disheartening. Then when I talk to her about it, she accuses me of thinking she doesn't love me. Which _wasn't_ what I was suggesting."

Katara frowned. "Well, then what _were_ you suggesting?"

Aang wasn't really sure how to answer that, to be honest. Did he think that dates, presents, and words were the basis of a healthy relationship? No. Of course not.

But they still felt nice, and it was always a sweet gesture to show you were willing to go the extra mile.

Now, Aang always asked Toph later on if she was eavesdropping on this conversation, and she always insisted that she wasn't. So either she was a liar or Katara had said something to the Earthbender afterwards. Either way, three days after Aang complained to Katara about Toph's lack of initiative, she had told him that she had planned a date for them.

Aang was stunned. "Wait…_you_ planned a date? You? Like, of your own volition?"

Toph slapped him on the arm and looked affronted. "Spirits, yes! I'm capable of doing things like planning a date, I mean gosh. Give me some credit."

Aang was trying not to smile too much at the thought of her actually taking his previous complaints seriously. "No, no, it's not that I thought you were incapable. I just…I didn't expect this from you."

Toph shrugged, crossed her arms, and dropped her head so that her loose hair slipped past her shoulder and covered her face. "Yeah, well…I though it'd be nice. Because, you know…you said you wanted me to, and…you looked upset the other day, so…yeah." She lifted her head and had her brows furrowed. "Look, don't worry about the why. Just…be ready in an hour, okay?"

Aang definitely didn't bother asking questions and decided to accept a good thing when it came to him.

As he was finding something to wear, he wondered what Toph would have planned. Her parents had a summerhouse in Gaoling that Toph had invited him to stay at for a few days before he flew off to Ba Sing Se to deal with correspondence from the King. Summer in Gaoling was wonderful. It was hot, but the mountain breezes kept the entire city cool and it was always perfect weather to relax in the parks or utilize the yards of the Bei Fong estates and just go through some easy bending spars. He wasn't the biggest fan of coming back to this city—Toph's father still didn't really like him too much—but he had to take Toph's word for it that the summers in her hometown were worth it.

He wondered what she had planned. Lunch? A day in the park? Maybe a show? They were looking at that new bakery slash teashop that had just opened near her home. Perhaps they'd be heading there for the day. That'd be a great start to the afternoon.

But instead, Toph had walked him to an abandoned plot of land that looked like it used to be a courtyard attached to a state building that stood condemned in front of them. All in all, a quiet and dull place on the edge of Gaoling that didn't look particularly entertaining.

Aang turned to Toph. "Um…are we here?"

Toph smiled wickedly and nodded. "Yup!" And with that, she stomped the ground, and opened up the ground underneath them.

Turns out that the abandoned plot of land was actually standing above a series of tunnels and a large stadium that were hidden deep underground. So when Toph bended them a few dozen feet below the courtyard, Aang was met with the sight of stands full of chattering people, crowds of large, muscular men stretching and flowing through stances, and a few benders on the stage of the stadium throwing rocks and flying off of the boundary lines.

Aang's heart dropped and he immediately felt all of his joints start aching.

"…Toph?" he began hesitantly. "Why are we at an Earth Rumble tournament?"

Toph was pulling ankle bands out of her pockets and clipping them on. "Oh, didn't you know? I entered this season."

Aang nodded absently, still staring at the packed stadium. "Okay…okay, so I thought that Earth Rumble was in spring…"

"Oh no, those are the Spring Singles Brackets," Toph said excitedly, stretching out her shoulders. "That was last season. This season, Gaoling puts on the Summer Doubles Matches."

Aang's eyes widened. "Wait, doubles matches?"

Toph nodded. "Yeah. I entered us." She slapped him on the shoulder. "Come on, get ready. We're a little late, and our match is in like ten minutes."

Turns out that Toph's idea of a date was to enter her and her boyfriend into an Earth Rumble bracket tournament. She even went ahead and told the official that she would be teaming with the Avatar and promised that he would limit himself exclusively to Earthbending in order to keep the competitions fair. Apparently all the other competitors knew this because big, meaty men were passing by him and patting him on the back, saying that they were excited to fight with him and were looking forward to seeing what he had.

It was seeing "The Blind Bandit &amp; The Avatar" in big block letters on the bracket board that really got Aang panicking.

"You're so lucky!" Toph said to him as they were on one side of the arena, waiting for two benders called The Hammer and The Drill to come up on the stage and face off with them. "The guys that are teaming up today are total wimps," she confided in him, whispering conspiratorially as if the competition could somehow hear them. "I mean, these guys in front of us are kinda good…but whatever! We're totally gonna nail them. They won't know what hit them."

"Toph, I don't know how to fight in these matches," Aang said in a panicked tone, pulling at the bending uniform that Toph had thrown at him when they made it to the changing rooms to get prepared. "Don't you remember the last time? I can't _do_ these things."

"Well, if your Fancydancing, Airbending butt would keep his feet on the freakin' ground and just bend some _Earth_ then you wouldn't have to worry," Toph deadpanned. "Besides, that first Earth Rumble fight was back before you knew anything about Earthbending. You defeated the freakin' Fire Lord, so I expect immaculate results. I'm still your master, you know. I don't want to see any shoddy stances. This is serious."

"I thought we were going on a _date,"_ Aang had the decency to whine.

Toph looked confused. "This is a date," she said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "It's the two of us doing something together as a couple. That's like the dictionary definition of a date."

Aang felt like pulling his hair out—well, if he had any hair. "No. Dates are going out for dinner, or going for a walk in the park, or spending a day in the city. It's not secretly signing up your boyfriend for a bracket tournament."

"Well, I needed to get my championship belt back," Toph said with her hands on her hips. "You know, because you _stole_ it from me and then I never got it back because of that stupid war." Aang rolled his eyes. They had fought about that championship belt debacle too many times. "I couldn't enter independently because we missed the singles season, so this was the next best thing! It'll be fun, I promise."

Aang felt like dropping to the floor and crying. This wasn't his idea of a good time. It was bad enough that he wasn't above ground enjoying the cool breezes outside, but fighting underground in the summer time meant that this arena was horrifyingly hot and stuffy, which made the prospect of fighting seem absolutely deplorable. Aang was already sweating bullets and didn't want to go through the trouble of trouncing the seven teams they'd have to blast their way through in order to win. He knew that he wanted Toph to take the initiative and plan things for them to do, but this wasn't what he had in mind. Honestly, fighting in an Earth Rumble tournament for a date? Only Toph would ever think of something like that.

He was about to turn to her to complain some more, but their competitors had already stepped onto the arena, and Toph's face lit up. She was bouncing on her toes and grinning like a little girl who had just been plopped in in front of a toy store. Toph was always telling him about the few years that she had spent in Earth Rumble and about all the things she learned about fighting, all the good friends she had made, and about all the "sissy Earthbenders" she had made mince meat out of in some of her first competitions. It was one of the few things that Toph got really excited about when the subject came up. He always knew that she loved fighting—hell, she said it all the time—but this was really one of the few times that he had seen her smiling and excited instead of serious and focused.

He wondered if it was because he was fighting with her.

He didn't dare ask to embarrass her.

Aang rolled his shoulders back and stepped into a horse stance. Well, they were already here. It wasn't like he could just hop off the stage and disqualify them. Toph would kill him, and to be completely honest, she looked absolutely elated to be joining the competition. He supposed he could suffer through this.

"I have a feeling I'm gonna regret this later when I'm nursing bruises," Aang complained, trying to fight a smile.

Toph shrugged. "Don't worry about that. It's like Iroh always says: keep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you," she told him sagely, trying to mimic Iroh's voice.

"And that means?" Aang asked distractedly.

"Focus on the fact that we're totally gonna whip these guys butts, and those bruises you're gonna get later will seem like nothing."

The Hammer and The Drill were an impressive team. The Hammer was a large, strong bender that made The Boulder look like a weakling. He would stomp the ground and make the entire arena rumble and push their opponents off balance. Then his wiry friend, The Drill, would burrow underneath the arena and pop in front of the opposing benders in order to try and bend them off of the arena and secure them a win. The only problem with their strategy was that both Aang and Toph were well versed in seismic sensing with Earthbending and they both had far more power available to them to make the ground quake so much harder than The Hammer could even dream of accomplishing.

Aang wasn't much of a fighter, but he had to admit that it was pretty satisfying to know that he had the upper hand in this fight.

Toph kept her attention on The Drill and Aang was left to deal with The Hammer. It was actually beautiful the way the two of them handled the fight. Toph would be able to see exactly where The Drill was coming up from and be able to bend him across the arena in an attempt to knock him out. Aang was still quite agile and able to jump really high without his Airbending and wasn't at all daunted by the mini-Earthquakes that The Hammer was trying to dish out. If anything, Toph had taught Aang very well, and the quakes that Aang was throwing right back at his gigantic opponent were on a completely different level from what any of the competitors here were used to.

He hated to admit it, but Aang wound up having—fun. Toph was laughing and cheering Aang on whenever he knocked The Hammer to his feet and Aang would shout over compliments to Toph whenever she managed to bend The Drill back into the hole he bended underneath her feet. In the end, they finished the fight in a fantastic show of double-teaming. Toph had thrown The Drill straight into The Hammer and sent the both of them reeling to the left. When they had both landed on a heap on the ground, Aang kept up their momentum by bending a slab of rock from underneath them and sent them careening off of the stadium and out of the ring.

The official raised his hand and declared The Blind Bandit and The Avatar the winners, and Toph had never looked happier. The thrust her fist into the air and started sending over some pretty creative insults at the benders they had just pummeled. The summer heat was finally getting to Aang and he had to wipe the sweat from his forehead and dab the back of his neck with his discarded shirt. His muscles were sore and he definitely felt his shins all bruised and banged up from the stray rocks that had flown all over the ring during their fight.

But none of that compared to the moment where Toph suddenly jumped on top of Aang, wrapped her legs around his waist, and planted a huge kiss on his lips and on his cheeks. Her lips were curled in a smile and her heart was pounding in excitement, and Aang couldn't help but find her enthusiasm endearing. He held her close to him and kissed her back while the spectators in the stands cheered them on.

Okay, so it wasn't actually his idea of a date. But it made Toph happy, and it was worth it just to see her smile down at him and tell him how awesome that final knock out move of his was.

Toph was right. Those bruises on his shins felt like nothing.


End file.
